The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Mark Mariani will present Master’s research titled, Understanding Voluntary Turnover from an Intentional Change Theory Perspective on 03/07/2025 at 1:30 PM in 540 McCallie Ave Room 394. Everyone is invited to attend.
Psychology
Chair: Dr. Chris Cunningham
Co-Chair:
Abstract:
In 2021, an estimated 30 million people across the United States quit their jobs, citing a lack of advancement opportunities as either a minor or major reason as to why they left. This study used the intentional change theory to understand why this is the case for so many people. This study measured the discrepancy between the ideal and real selves (RISG) as well as their perceptions of the learning and development resources that their employers provided, along with a variety of other covariates to assess the extent to which one’s RISG and perceptions of learning and development resources can predict turnover intentions and organizational commitment. The hypotheses were that these two predictors would predict turnover intentions and organizational commitment over and above the effect of other covariates and that perceived barriers to learning and development would reduce these relationships. The results of the study mostly supported this notion by generating models in which RISG and perceived adequacy of learning and development resources were able to predict 62% and 61% of the variance in turnover intentions respectively. A moderation analysis also suggested that learning and development resources are best at predicting turnover intentions when they are able to address one’s RISG. Additionally, moderation analysis suggested that barriers to learning and development completely negate the relationship between perceived adequacy and organizational commitment. The implications of this study are that understanding the workforce’s RISG is a critical aspect to take into consideration when designing learning and development systems.